art in vienna and other stories

About techno and new (non-) models: I Hate Models

At the beginning it was daydreaming, then became an exclusive loneliness, and then put on the clothes of a witch. I’ve found I Hate Models (IHM) like many people nowadays found new music – through the (targeted) shuffle of Youtube – and it was love at first listening.

I love techno music since when we were both babies. My love for music has no defined borders: yet, there has always been something magical, hypnotical, in the dark and deep sounds of the electronic beats. I think techno in the music world has many similarities with contemporary art in the artistic one: it may be perceived as a mix of noise and bass, monotonous and inharmonic for the ones who don’t follow it; but an attentive ear (partial self quote) can catch all the different tonalities, the beat with its overlapped metric levels, the modulated intensity of each component; and then the intensity, the melody, the beauty of a 130 bpm track. I listen to a lot of this shit: and when one year ago I ended up on Daydream, track from IHM debut EP Warehouse memories, I felt it as a revelation.

Techno is great for dancing: it is on the dancefloor that it can be played loud, reaching you with the whole spectrum of frequencies, giving you that hype that makes you feel unstoppable, happy and comforted. I am one of these fans who can also play it on a Tuesday morning while under the shower; still, I myself admit that certain tracks can result boring and repetitive outside the dancefloor.

IHM has revolutionised the whole scene. His tracks are pure magic, a condensate of the hardest beats with gloomy and charming melodies typical of the post-punk and dark wave of the 80’s, still with a unique touch. His music is an intimate journey where we can get lost and again found.

Last month he finally played here in Vienna, at a Techno Deluxe event in Grelle Forelle. It is a great experience to see him live: he doesn’t play his own tracks, yet the set is not focused on the reaction of the dancefloor; rather the music, finally, is the protagonist to which the crowd bows.

Little is known about him, as he prefers (or tries…) not to show himself (he covers his face with a bandana); what is evident is his talent, which has made him exponentially acquiring notoriety and reaching the biggest European festivals.